How to Make India’s Railways Safer

A burnt carriage of a passenger train at the Nellore railway station, Andhra Pradesh July 30.

A fire that swept through a moving passenger train in southern India on Monday killed at least 32 people and injured dozens, according to a railway official.

One coach of the Tamil Nadu Express going from New Delhi to the southern city of Chennai caught fire as it passed through the station in the town of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh.

A spokesman for India’s railways, Anil Saxena, could not confirm the cause of the fire. Local media reported that the blaze seems to have been caused by an electrical short circuit in the coach.

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India’s state-owned rail network is the main mode of long-distance travel in the country. But safety remains a pressing issue.

Between January 2007 and September 2011, more than 2,000 people died in 738 railway accidents – including collisions, derailments, fires and unprotected railway crossings – the railways minister revealed last year in response to a Right-to-Information request filed by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal.

In recent months, railway accidents have been alarmingly common. In May, 24 passengers were killed and 25 injured when a passenger train collided with a stationary goods train in Andhra Pradesh. Later that month, four people died after a train derailed in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

And this month, a goods train derailed in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. Last week, a speeding passenger train rammed into 11 coaches of a Mumbai suburban train in the western state of Maharashtra, killing three people and injuring more than 50.

Experts say that although the causes for these disasters vary, together they show that just how poor India’s record is when it comes to rail safety.

Fire detection systems: Most trains in India still lack effective systems to detect smoke and fire. In some trains, the fire alarm systems have been installed in air-conditioned coaches, while other compartments have been neglected. In open compartments, it is more difficult to detect smoke. The Tamil Nadu Express fire took place in the train’s non-AC coaches.

Anti-collision technologies. These are devices that automatically halt the train if it overshoots a red signal. “India, which has the world’s fourth-largest railway network after the U.S. China and Russia, still doesn’t have such safety devices,” said Vijay Kumar, a railway safety expert and former railways official.

Such technologies could have helped prevent the 32 train collisions that took place in India since 2008, according to official figures.

Improved staffing. While speeding and skipping red signals are the main causes of concern, human error is another common cause of accidents. The reason for this is partly that there is a shortage of staff, meaning that workers are often overworked, said Mr. Kumar. According to official figures, there were 18 train accidents last year due to faults of drivers and other railway staff.

New tracks. A significant number of accidents that take place in India are caused by derailments. For this, “derelict tracks are to blame,” Mr. Kumar said.

There were 273 train derailments in India since 2008, 28 of which took place last year, according to official figures.

A report submitted in February by a panel of experts appointed by the Indian government said there was an “urgent need to modernize the key revenue generating assets of the railways such as tracks and bridges.” It suggested modernization of 19,000 kilometers of existing tracks.

Manned railway crossings. There are more than 50,000 crossings along India’s railway tracks of which 15,000 are unmanned. This is where accidents are more likely to occur “primarily due to inadequate precautions by road users failing to observe mandatory sign boards, signals and basic traffic safety rules,” the ministry of railways said in a recent statement. “The cost of maintaining these [crossings] is huge. But work is underway,” it said.

According to government records, nearly 10,000 people died during the last three years in accidents on unprotected crossings. Mr. Kumar said the government should provide “easy options” such as “improved fencing, flyovers and overpass bridges” so that people don’t just rush across the railway tracks.

What measures should the government take to improve the safety of the Indian railway system? Please share your views in the Comments section.

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